


Primum Non Nocere

by RedundantHarpoons



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angela's No Angel, F/F, Moicy and Reaper76 if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-05
Packaged: 2019-08-18 20:26:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16524059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedundantHarpoons/pseuds/RedundantHarpoons
Summary: It wasn't supposed to be like this.





	Primum Non Nocere

**Author's Note:**

> Ported over from [my tumblr post](http://redundantharpoons.tumblr.com/post/179770677383/moira-hired-on-to-cure-reaper-and-didnt-do-it-to) with some minor alterations to make the beginning more story-esque.

It had been an injury far worse than any she'd seen in some time. Severe lacerations all across his abdomen and arms, his trachea had been completely bisected by the propeller. There was no way surgery would have saved Gabriel's life, simply no way for conventional medicine to bring him through this. Luckily, though, Overwatch had Angela, and Angela had nanotechnology.

At first it had seemed a flawless application of her newest experimental build: The microscopic machines had set to work rebuilding his tissues, fighting off the foreign pathogens streaming through the lacerations. An absolute success. But it was not to remain so. What had gone wrong? An errant decimal point in her build design? Something unique about Gabriel, some patient-therapy interaction interfering with the biomechanical and biochemical work of the little bots? God, what was it?  _What had gone so wrong?_

She mended Gabriel, but far from helping him, she infected him.

The nanobots have spread through every bit of his body, as intended. They’ve repaired him, as intended. But they don’t stop just fighting off the foreign invaders from the wound, they don’t stop working,  _changing._ His cellular structure is in constant flux trying to fight off these nanobots and keep him alive, while the nanobots continue to try to “cure” him, further advancing his deteriorating position.

No one blames Angela, they knew she was trying to help, they knew she always does her best. No one blames Angela, except for Angela. First her well-meaning attempts at rebuilding Genji Shimada left him out of touch with his humanity, not even knowing if he’s really alive, and now she’s killed Gabe.

She can fix this. She’s certain she can fix this, she just needs time. And she spends every bit of it she can on Gabe. New nanobot builds perhaps, to fight off the old nanobots. Maybe she could introduce a modified virus that could attack the nanobots?

Coffee. Cigarettes. Stimulants. She has everything she needs except sleep, and time. He’s deteriorating more every day, and she can see him slipping away before her eyes, all at her hands.

She was meant to be a healer, a doctor. She wanted to  _help_ people, and everything she touches turns to ash.

When Gabriel and Jack call her to a private meeting she is at the end of her rope. She can do nothing, but she hasn’t given up, and though she hasn’t slept in a week, she can at least drag them and and assure them she’s doing her best, that perhaps they can at least delay the deterioration.

But when she gets there, it is not only the two men she finds, but someone else. A tall, striking woman she’s never seen before. Perhaps another time, when this didn’t weigh so heavy on her heart, when she was not sleepless and burdened with such blinding guilt and so wholeheartedly committed to helping Gabe, she’d have turned Angela’s head. But not today, and Angela simply goes cold.

They weren’t going to talk to others about it, not even Ana or Lena knew what had Gabe out of service, why Angela was so over-worked. Angela told herself it was about patient privacy. She tried to push away the knowledge that Jack and Gabe wanted to shield her from judgement, from guilt. They needn’t have, there’s no more guilt in the universe than what is on Angela’s shoulders.

“I wanted a second opinion, that’s all, Angela.”

Gabe is polite, understanding. Since when does the dying patient adopt the bedside manner, give the tough news to the doctor? This is all wrong.  _Everything_ is wrong.

“Dr. O’Deorain has some interesting ideas about gene therapy that might–”

“No,” Angela whispers, turning pleading eyes to Jack and Gabriel in turn, refusing to look at the cool, impossibly calm woman sitting to her right, “Please, I … I made this mess,  _I_ will clean it up.”

A pause, and Jack clears his throat.

“Angela,” He could be her father with the way he speaks to her, but it’s clear from his tone she is not who he worries about most, “I understand,  _we_ understand … but this isn’t  _a mess,_ it’s Gabriel’s  _life._ … If there’s  _anything_ that can be done, we need to do it.”

“You can work together,” Gabriel glances to the silent woman, who gives a curt and professional nod back, “I’m sure between the two of you–”

“ _I don’t need help,”_ Angela grimaces.

Another pause, impossibly and uncomfortable, and finally the woman speaks, a deep, Irish accent carrying an unforgiving tone, “Perhaps not,” her words are quick and cut like a knife, “But  _Gabriel_ needs help. Would you stand in the way, doctor?”

And Angela can’t say anything more. She hates this woman already, and she wants to scream at Jack and Gabriel, for robbing her of her chance to redeem herself, to fix her mistakes, to live up to her reputation, to be who she knows she is.

She’s not a monster, and she could have fixed this.

“Get some sleep, Angela,” Jack’s voice is an order, a dismissal, and an apology, “Dr. O’Deorain can keep you updated on her progress.”

**Author's Note:**

> I just love the idea that Angela’s apparent hatred of Moira isn’t actually anything to do with Moira as a person, it’s that Angela caused Gabriel’s condition and she hates Moira for maybe being able to come in and at least prolong his “life,” if not fix his condition outright.
> 
> I also love the idea that after some time away from Overwatch, that’s how Reaper and Moira ended up partying it up with Sombra is that they wanted to bring in a technology expert to work on a gene/technology hybrid therapy to try to disable Angela’s nanobots as they continue, at a slowed rate, to kill him.
> 
> I just love guilty, broody Angela and I love professional “I’m just here to do my job and I’m damn good at it, btw” Moira, and that this just adds so much depth to, for instance, their voice interaction.
> 
> Mercy: Describing your work as unethical would be a kindness.
> 
> Moira: But the true question is whether or not you can deny my discoveries… No. I didn’t think so.
> 
> Angela isn’t actually apalled by Moira’s research, it’s her own defense mechanism. The reason Angela couldn’t fix Gabe was because she was bound by ethics, that’s why. She didn’t fail as a physician, it was Moira being willing to overstep that allowed her to somewhat succeed. If she keeps telling herself that, if she keeps hating Moira for what she’s done, she might be able to quiet the guilt that bubbles up inside her every time she’s reminded of what she did, what her nanobots are still doing, to Gabriel, their one shared patient.


End file.
